Cope Leader Denies Plans To Recall Mosiuoa Lekota

JOHANNESBURG – Congress of the People’s (Cope) general secretary Papi Kganare denied there were plans to recall the party’s leader, Mosiuoa Lekota, at the organisation’s national executive committee meeting next week.

“We’ve received no proposed motion of no confidence [against] Lekota because, in terms of our Cope constitution, if anybody proposes a motion of no confidence against any leader, that person must put it in writing.”

Eyewitness News reported on Tuesday afternoon on plans by some of the party’s leaders to stop Lekota from returning to Parliament.

EWN spoke to several party leaders who confirmed they intended to table a motion of no confidence against Lekota.

They said they were not happy with the association Lekota created between the party and lobby group AfriForum, which they blamed for the party’s poor showing at the polls.

From an impressive 30 seats when it first entered Parliament in 2009, the party’s seats have dwindled to just two after last week’s election.

In September 2018 Lekota took everyone, including his own party, by surprise when he joined forces with AfriForum to “protect property rights”.

They held a briefing to announce they would be asking the international community to pressure the governing African National Congress and Parliament into stopping what they described as the illegal amendment of the Constitution.